Communication Disorders Technology, Inc. (CDT) was founded in 1989 by Charles S. Watson and Diane Kewley-Port, Professors of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and Daniel P. Maki, Professor of Mathematics, all at Indiana University, Bloomington.  CDT has become a leader in the development of new technologies for speech and hearing professionals (speech pathologists and teachers of the deaf), and for teachers of foreign languages.

Over the past twenty years six products have been developed and clinically tested.

The company's first product, the Indiana Speech Training Aid (ISTRA), was marketed in Indiana 1994.  ISTRA has been removed from the market pending an upgrade suited to current generation computers. 

Development of HearSay, an English pronunciation and perception training system, began in June 1995 and that system was marketed through 2004.  HearSay has been removed from the market pending an upgrade suited to current generation computers. 

A hearing screening device, the Home Hearing Evaluator, was developed, clinically validated,  and patented by CDT in collaboration with engineers at Autosound 2000 in Burlington, North Carolina.

You-Said-It, (YSI) a system for teaching English as a first language to people with developmental disabilities.  The YSI system was successfully deployed in beta test versions, but further work on that system has been deferred pending required funding.

Since 2003 CDT’s major research focus has been on the Speech Perception And Training System for the Hearing Impaired (SPATS-HI), a training curriculum that has been shown to enable persons with impaired hearing to recognize speech more accurately through hearing aids and cochlear implants.   

A second version of the SPATS curriculum for use by non-native speakers of English is designated SPATS-ESL.   Both versions of SPATS have been shown to yield important improvements in speech recognition, after 20-30 hours of systematic training.  The SPATS curricula include training on the elements of English speech and also on naturally spoken, meaningful sentences.

The Tibbetts Awards are presented annually by the United States Small Business Administration to provide national recognition to those small firms, individuals, various organizations and projects that exemplify the business, economic and technological achievements of the Federal Small Business Innovation Research Program.